Follow Us on Google
From Romanus Ugwu, Abuja
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has declared over 1.126 million fresh registrants invalid, delisting them.
INEC further disclosed that those affected include fresh registrants between June 28, 2021 and January 14, 2022.
It revealed that they were discovered during the clean up exercise performed with Automated Biometric Identification System (ABIS).
The electoral umpire hinged the invalid registration on several double, multiple and ineligible registrants, and added that entries that fail to meet the commission’s business rules were also affected.
The commission in a statement signed by National Commissioner and Chairman Information and Voter Education Committee, Festus Okoye, assured new registrants of the availability of their Permanent Voters’ Cards (PVCs) end of October/early November as promised.
“As Nigerians are aware, the cleaning up of the register of voters using the ABIS is ongoing since the suspension of the Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) on 31st July 2022.
Read also: Road to 2023: Tinubu will defeat Atiku, Obi – Oshiomhole, Giadom
“Earlier, the Commission informed Nigerians that out of the 2, 523,458 fresh registrants that registered between 28th June 2021 and 14th January 2022, 1,126,359 records were found to be invalid and consequently delisted.
“The ABIS for the period – January 15 to July 31, 2022 is almost completed. Several double, multiple and ineligible registrants have also been detected and invalidated.
“These include entries that fail to meet the commission’s business rules. The Commission takes this responsibility seriously because a credible register is at the heart of electoral integrity.
“As soon as the process is concluded, the Commission will provide the public with full information as usual. Thereafter, valid registrants will be added to the existing national register of voters before publishing same nationwide for scrutiny, claims and objections by citizens as required by section 19 (1) of the Electoral Act 2022.
“We reassure Nigerians that a thorough process is being undertaken to clean up the registration data. Similarly, Permanent Voters’ Cards (PVCs) for all valid registrants will be available for collection by the end of October/early November as promised,” the statement read.
